Dash_no_Chris

First thing to do is grab all those new blue-side Exploration badges (and related Accolades) -- trying to get my main, Dash Bleu, to 700 badges (and beyond). Got about halfway through collecting the new Explorations when I ran into one of Mistress Noire's alts, Doctor Noire, standing just outside the arrivals platform in Indy Port. Ran up, waved, said "howdy," right-clicked her t'get a look at her Info... and apparently I hit a struck a nerve, hit a sore spot, or perhaps one of the PPD officers at the substation directly across the street thought I was engaging in some "bad touch," but the next thing I knew the world froze up and I was forcibly ejected from Paragon City. Missy N, would a written apology be enough to get you to agree to not press any charges? :P

--Chris

Big congrats to ya, Missy N! That's some awesome progress you've made -- I have no doubts you'll reach your goal.

Back in '04, I got fed up with the extra weight I'd been carrying around for over 10 years, and started exercising, eating several small portions of healthier food each day (instead of 2 or 3 big meals (of questionable nutritional value)), and cut out the sodas and junk food. The whole process was more successful than I'd initially hoped, and I maintained my new, lower weight level (~150 lbs) for a few years.

Unfortunately, I fell off the wagon in the last couple of years, and with a return to little to no exercise and with a failure to pull back on an appetite that had been increased by my previously-higher metabolism, I put about half of the weight back on. I didn't get back to my early-2004 weight level of 194 lbs, but in early 2010 I was at 174.8 lbs.

Since mid-February, I've tried to reinstate most of my previous dietary guidelines, and started exercising again by using the first 7 workout videos in the P90X series. I hopped on the scale March 4th to find I'd lost 4.6 lbs over a period of about 3 weeks. If I can maintain a steady loss rate of about 1.5 lbs per week, I'm hopeful that I might be able to get back down to 150 lbs by the first week of June (just in time to ask for new trousers for m'birthday).

Big congrats again to Mistress Noire on her phenomenal progress, and a full measure of attaboys and keepitups to all the other Guardianites trying to get into better shape.

Ack! I was still clearing pixie dust from my eyes left over from the last MoITF run and couldn't see m'calendar clearly! Happy belated birthday, Ariel!

--Chris

Howdy, Guardian! Regrettably, I've been away from CoX for most of the past few months, but I've been peeking in on the forums now and again, keeping an eye out for some of the not-to-be-missed stuff. Ariel, I was wondering if you still have an open spot on the MoKahn if I could volunteer my main, Dash Bleu (lv.50 ma/sr scrapper). He's also in need of the MoSTF badge, but it looks like you've already got plenty of alts queued up for that one (although, if you wanted to put down a 4th alt in the event of unlikelihood... :P ).

Merry Christmas, everybody. : )

--Chris

The 'Vegas locals gave "Hangover" a solid thumbs-up all 'round -- we all want more movies featuring Ken Jeong (Mr. Chow).

Having enjoyed a number of Mr. Farrell's efforts (Elf, Anchorman, the Matrix parody for the MTV music awards years ago) -- but being someone who has fond memories of camping out in front of the TV at ages 5 and 6 y.o. for Land of the Lost -- I gotta say: every new scene I see in adverts for his latest film makes me wanna slap 'im upside the head.

--Chris

Thanks much, everyone! Spent the morning with mum, m'sisters, and m'nephews (ages 3 and not-quite-1) at the Shark Reef exhibit at the Mandalay Bay hotel/casino (my first time there), and then lunch at home with my 3-year-old nephew introducing me to Pixar's "Cars," his fave movie. Went to the movies with friends to see "Hangover" -- officially rated "hilarious" by us 'Vegas locals -- and then to dinner afterward at The Crown & Anchor: Scotch egg, steak & kidney pie, & English trifle, washed down with a Guinness, a Harp, and a Bombardier. Cap it off by arriving home to find Turner Classic Movies running "Duel" -- without doubt, It Was A Good Day.

--Chris

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funniest movie all year so far

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S'what I heard from a friend who was lucky enough to get into an advance screeing a few weeks back. 'Bunch of us 'Vegas locals goin' t'see it tonight (damn, I need to get to bed already), followed by lots of beer at the local British pub.

--Chris

My sincere apologies for not making it this morning. Somehow, I ended up thinking 10am PST instead of CST, and set my alarm clock for 9:45am PST -- it probably didn't help that it was after 4am when I set the alarm.

--Chris

Oh, just wanted to mention, my main (Dash Bleu, lv.50 ma/sr scrapper) is on the cusp of 2 badge missions:

> Statesman's Pal (Tyrant AV, final mish of Maria Jenkins' arc)
> Master of Olympus (Kronos Titan GM ambush, on completion of current mish in Crimson's arc)

He's had the badges for some time (having earned them via other players' missions), but I just recently got 'round to working his way through his own copies of these arcs. Just in case some of the Saturday morning TF participants have alts that need these badges, I wanted to suggest the possibility of running these 2 missions after the TFs.

--Chris

I'd be interested in volunteering my tanker, Dash Rouge (invulnerability / energy melee) for both Positron and Synapse. I'll have to check his current security level when I get home from work -- I think he's 22 right now.

EDIT: confirmed -- he's 22.

--Chris

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Thanks to all who came out tonight for another successful raid. Special thanks to Cranky Rad, Wizona Fyre, Nemo, Dash Bleu, and DevilsWill for leading the teams.

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Thanks to everyone for another fun & successful raid. Wulf, I just wanted to give credit where credit is due: Blade Mistress was the leader of Yellow Damage Team #2. Dash Bleu merely followed her lead and tried to keep an eye out for teamless new arrivals to The Hive in order to help her fill out our team's ranks.

--Chris

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Just to let you all know, I have successfully ran a Scrapper all the way to 32 with this system. I have not encountered any problems that could not be overcome. In fact, it added a bit of fun to travel. I had to find new routes, overcome some walls that I did not worry about before and stuff like that. It added a bit of change to an area of the game that was "stale".

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Thank you for this idea. Because of this post, I now have a way to stay in concept with my non-super TA/A defender.

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Thanks so much for shamelessly bumping your thread, Airman_America -- otherwise I might have completely missed it. Like Shadow_Coyote's non-super TA/A defender, my MA/SR scrapper (Dash Bleu) is a non-super concept character. Originally he -- and the other Dashes, all clones (in one way or another) of Bleu -- took CJ/SL for their travel power needs. As cool as SL was (and it truly made COH look/feel like an entirely different game when Bleu first took it at lv.14), it was WAY overpowered for his concept -- I wanted cool ninja leaping (a la Babil Nisei, Giant Robo The Animation, or Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon), not mile long super-jumps (a la The Incredible Hulk). Bleu is supposed to be a Paragon City Municipal Court warrant clerk with a knack for hitting things and a real talent for not getting hit by them, but he's still supposed to be "non-super." Previously, I decided to respec all the Dashes out of CJ/SL and go with Sprint/Swift/Hurdle (only the original 1 socket in each) as their movement package.

Like you, Airman_America, I found this put a new perspective on many areas of the game. Any zone I'd accessed after lv.14 had primarily only been seen from the SL perspective -- much of the ground-level design/layout of higher-level zones was therefore new to me now that I was required to run through it. For some of the more notorious zones (like Terra Volta and Faultline), I had to learn the more "pedestrian" paths of navigation. It became something of a point of pride with me that I'd figured out how to get to the Terra Volta trial door (or out of the chasms of Faultline) without a travel power -- heck, I even figured out the route out of the Trench in the center of Terra Volta (a location I'd previously believed to be inescapable without SL/Flight/TP).

I got questioned by LOTS of teammates as to why I had no travel power, and the number of negative reactions I got to my "character concept" justification was far fewer than the neutrals/positives. In fact, I got quite a few compliments on just how quickly the Dashes were able to get from point A to point B -- a greater familiarity with the "pedestrian" routes thru zones really helped to keep my travel times from getting out of hand.

However, the Sprint/Swift/Hurdle combination STILL wasn't exactly what I'd wanted for the Dashes' original concept. The jumps -- while certainly well beyond normal human limitations -- just weren't "wuxia" enough for me. And I missed the extra control (questionable though its physics may be) that Combat Jumping offered. I recently respec'd Dash Bleu out of Hurdle and back into CJ, and was enjoying the extra jump distance and greater freedom of movement again. And then, I read your thread...

Thanks so much for posting the Sprint(2)/Hurdle(2)/CJ(1) idea -- I had never realized that you could even put Jump enhancements on Sprint! Dash Bleu still had a few respecs left over, so I headed to Galaxy City to test his current travel speed capabilities, respec him to use your suggested combo, and retest. With +2 SOs in each of the 5 Jump sockets, I found that his overall travel speed had been improved by a full 33% (over Sprint(run)/Swift(run)/CJ(all def))!. And the distance/height boosts have combined to make the whole package feel like a mini-SuperLeap! This is exactly what I've been looking for all this time: cool wirework-style ninja leaping without crossing into the realm of tall buildings and single bounds. Thanks very much once again!